One-third of A&E injuries drink-related

ALCOHOL is responsible for almost a third of all injuries treated in A&E departments, a new study published today reveals.

The study, which examined 2,500 patients who had their injuries treated in six major acute hospitals throughout the country, found that more than a third of the injuries were caused by another person.

A&E consultant and report co-author, Eamonn Brazil, said it was the first time that the experience of more than one casualty department was examined.

“It also confirms the public and medical perception that alcohol abuse has a significant impact on what we do in emergency medicine,” he said.

A similar study conducted in 2002 suggested that there were problems with alcohol in one in five admissions to Dublin’s Mater Hospital and that alcohol was a factor in one in four people presenting themselves in casualty.

Hospitals involved in the latest study were the Mater, Beaumont Hospital (Dublin), Waterford Regional Hospital, University College Galway, Letterkenny General Hospital (Donegal) and Sligo General Hospital.

The highest prevalence of alcohol-related injuries were cuts, bites and open wound injuries while six% of injuries were self-inflicted. Dr Brazil said the overall finding that 28% of injuries are alcohol related was significant but pointed out that was an average figure for all the hospitals and the %age was likely to be higher at the weekend and at night-time.

He added that the study only included patients over 18 years of age and those who presented within six hours of having received the injury. Dr Brazil said the amount of alcohol being consumed week in, week out, by those who end up in A&E was really frightening. “If the volume of alcohol consumption that we are seeing in A&E departments in this study continue unabated we are going to have big problems in 10 to 20 years time,” he warned.

“All we are seeing now are the acute injuries, we are not seeing the liver disease, the stomach problems from bleeding and the psychiatric illnesses associated with heavy drinking.”

Dr Brazil who has worked as an A&E consultant in the Mater for four years said most of the people presenting with alcohol-related injuries were young men.

“It is only when you get into the pattern of drinking that it becomes really alarming,” he said.

“The patterns were that strong you could nearly predict that the injuries were drink related.”